FXF Travels :: Northern Getaway | Travel Diary {Day 6}

FXF Travels :: Northern Getaway – Travel Diary {Day 6}

Mt. Summat & Morong, Bataan

Today I’m sharing the last part of my Northern Getaway travel diary and I am so sad it is ending. I had so much fun doing these kind of posts as I got to keep a sort of online diary of where I went and look back at it. I wanted to recall the memories and since I love writing and taking pictures this was another creative outlet for me to express that. Being able to take that little vacation in the beginning of the year was so much fun and I have these pictures for a keepsake and I hope you liked me sharing them with you. The second to last day was my favorite as we got to go on a road trip up to the beach and stopped at a historical landmark too We spent the day there and I think it has been almost 2 years since I went to the beach properly (not counting the hour I spent in last week’s travel diary) and almost 10 years since I had an actual beach vacation with my family. This is very picture heavy so be warned that there’s a lot of picture of that day and I actually ran out of memory because I think I had more than 500 pictures or more that day so it was pretty hard narrowing it down. Hope you enjoy a few selected snaps I picked for this post.

So here is the photo diary of the last day!

Day 6

To start off our beach day we planned it the night before and packed everything in the car as we were going to leave at 6am to be early as it is a 4-5 hour drive to the beach resorts. Lynn packed food and we packed up our picnic basket again, some toys and all the other beach essentials we had for the day. It was fun in the kitchen all of us hanging out doing different things and preparing different food to have for the beach. In the morning we all loaded up and got into our beach attire and we were going to take my cousin’s friend but we ended up taking her cousin instead. With all the stuff packed in the trunk, the three of us smashed in the back, my dad in the front set and lastly my cousin the driver we were off on our adventure to the beach.

My dad wanted to stop by Mt. Sumit as he never been nor have I and while we were on our way we decided to just stop by. This monument is very famous and dedicated to the Bataan Death March which you should Google if you want to know more but to sum it up for you during the Japanese takeover of the Philippines they marched thousands of Filipinos along these roads all the way to Manila which is several hours away about 6-7 so it was very tragic what happened. We actually had to drive on the road they walked on and there are signs where people were killed and memorial marks. It is very sad what happened and we wanted to pay our respects and visit as that’s what you do when you are on vacation. We had to drive a steep winding road to get up there but the view was incredible, there is an entrance fee but that includes everything so you don’t have to pay at each stop. We all got a chance to take pictures in front of the cross as you can see and you cannot imagine how huge it was. After that we actually headed up and took a few pictures up there and then went to the museum but we aren’t allowed to take any pictures inside so I was split between happy I didn’t have to worry about taking so many pictures but I also didn’t want to miss out. I did get a chance to take a picture of our tickets though. So while we were in the museum my cousin and her cousin decided to follow the massive trail going up the mountain to get to the top. Once you are t the top you get on the elevator inside the cross and you have a view of everything. I didn’t go up because we were in a hurry for the beach but if e did I might push myself to do it because they say the view is worth it. In the pictures you can see a little how far it is. We took more pictures and enjoyed the view for an hour and had to get on our way. On our way out though we saw a monkey and I had to get his picture. Then we headed down that winding road again swaying side to side on top of each other.

To get to the beach resorts we had to travel another 3 hours through the mountains with pretty much no civilization for miles. It was just us on the open road and also they had a huge bike race going on so we needed to stop on the side of the road for a while to let them through but we cheered them on and we were laughing so hard for some reason but too bad the pictures turned out blurry because of the speed since I put it on the wrong setting. It was so fun though and once it was over we were on our way again. We don’t know how many times we got lost but we kept asking until finally we reached the town and now our big problem was finding which beach resort to choose out of the many that were there. All of them were right next to each other and it took us a good 30 minutes to maybe an hour deciding on one. When we finally did after trying and tour a few we ended with Coral View Beach Resort. We made the right choice.

They welcomed us, took all of our stuff in for us and gave us our own table and chairs and we picked the one by the pool. technically the pool wasn’t just ours but since they were only a few people we got a choice of ours making it kind of our own private pool. We set up the food and ate in shifts as we had to watch our toddler as we were only inches from the pool and he wanted in so badly. We had an assortment of food and desserts which were so yummy but the only thing was we had these mini shot plastic cups and so we had to make use and only drink a little bit at a time. You had to be there but it was very funny.

So the beach day started off on a rough note as it started raining for a few minutes and in some pictures you can see the rain clothes and stormy skies. I was so bummed as I wanted to go swimming and hang out by the beach and feel the warm sand. I was soon granted my with as it cleared up an hour later and was nice and sunny again so the pictures seem half sunny and half gloomy. I think we were lucky though and the weather corporate with us as we didn’t bring any sunscreen and I burn easily so it just wanted to help me out and not be too sunny which I am now grateful for.

We spent a lot of tie walking on the beach and running barefoot in the sand is the best but also seeing a toddler be at the beach for the first time is the most wonderful feeling too. He love the sand and the water and the waves made him giggle so loudly. I took so many pictures of him enjoying himself and he got mad when we took him out. He just learned to talk not to many months ago so him trying to walk through sand was the cutest thing but not too cute when he tried to eat the sand and a rock. You should of seen how fast all of us ran. We then got to play on the playground for him and as you can see we played a game of beach volleyball as well which we still don’t know who won.

Then we went picture happy. The place was beautiful and my cousin decided to model for me and I styled her and we did an impromptu shoot to help with my photography portfolio. You should see how many pictures we have of her and I showed them to my teacher when I got back and he loved them. Some were just for fun but they turned out amazing and al of us went crazy taking pictures. I did a mini shoot myself and also have an outfit post on this look for tomorrow so look out for that. After spending time on the beach we decided to go back to our area and go swimming we all enjoyed it and I have some great pictures of me trying to be a mermaid but I was embarrassed and want to keep them private as I don’t think anyone should see that. It was fun though and at least I wrote about it.

It was then time to pack up and after spending the rest of the evening in the pool it was time to get back. I sneaked off to take these beautiful sunset pictures and just spending time by myself walking on the beach alone was really calming. The sounds of the waves gently crashing beside you and the sand in your toes took away some of the stress. Taking a walk on the beach alone can do wonders especially if you had the view of the sunset. When I got back the things were all loaded up and we took the last pictures in front of the resort for remembrance.

We headed home and it was a few hours again drive in nothing but pure darkness going down roads and it curves suddenly. It was pretty scary especially if you think about thousands of people dying on this road from the past. we tried not to think about it and keep our minds off of it which I tried to and when Taylor Swift’s Style came on the radio and the lyrics matched our situation quite well when a car passed us with no headlights as the song suggest. It was really freaky but I felt like I was in the music video. I ended up falling asleep with my cousin and I woke up just before we arrived. We got home safe and we were all so tired from our fantastic beach day.

That is the last part of the travel diary and by far my favorite day. I know it was super long but I wanted to get as much details in as possible and thank you if you read through all of that babble. I enjoyed doing this so much and hope to be doing a lot more come summer as I really want to do more traveling and experience new places. It was a wonderful trip and as the pictures suggests I’ll Be Back!

If you missed any other part of this travel diary there are three more parts:

The writer behind fashionxfairytale. I'm currently living in Manila but I'm from Los Angeles. I spend my days writing, taking pictures and styling outfits. You'll always see a bow in my hair or twirling in a tulle skirt.
est. 2011.
fashionxfairytale is a plus size fashion blog, my own little whimsical land on the Internet.